The Shifter
by Willowtuft
Summary: When Megotron supposedly wiped out all the shapeshifters at the war's first start everything changed. There was no ultimate force that could keep the peace on Cybotron, but that was exactly what the the menace wanted. Now, after so many years, can the foe Megatron tried so hard to extinguish still live on?
1. Prologue

**Cybotronians I am adding that are not in the Prime's verse:**

**Decepticons:**

**Barricade**

**Scywarp**

**Thundercracker**

**Sideways**

**Scalpel (Dwahahaha)**

**Ravage (The cyber cat)**

**(Dreadwing will be alive)**

**Autobots:**

**JAZZ**

**Prowl**

**Sideswipe**

**Sunstreaker**

**Elita-1**

**Chromia**

**Ironhide**

**Mirage**

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Prologue

In a remote corner of Cybotron hidden in a half destroyed building stood four Cybotronians. Well, technically only two of the four stood, the other two being held closely to a mother's chest.

The two sparklings cooed and held on to their mother's fingers tightly, examining and playing with the tiny pieces of armer on the digits that had to have been specially made.

The other Cybotronian in the room, also a femme, looked with sorrowful optics at the two sparklings a faint look of remembrance on her face.

The mother with a great sigh said as if the four words would change both their lives, which they would,"It is time HalfMoon."

HalfMoon nodded, stepping forward with long, purposeful strides holding out her hands in expectance.

The mother took one last look at her sparklings, and handed them to HalfMoon.

They fussed and whined through the bond they shared with their mother, having never before met this strange femme, wanting nothing more than to be back in their mother's loving arms, and making a mental effort to make their mother understand this, but that would never happen again.

Half Moon looked expectantly at the mother, knowing that she had not yet done it.

"Just give me a click!" the mother snapped. She had been preparing herself for this moment for a long time, but still when it came she was hesitant. She focussed on the bond she shared with her sparklings, and with all her might, she severed it.

Not one of the four Cybotronians moved. Then, the two sparklings began to cry. The mother knew they were trying to reach her through the bond, but there was no bond anymore. When they realized that their mother wasn't responding, they began to wail. Maybe from panic, maybe from the pain of a broken bond, though their pain was very minuscule compared to what the mother was feeling.

The pain was steadily growing within her till it became nigh unbearable. Her sparklings tried to reach out to her and every instinct in her body was telling her to rush to her sparklings, snatch them away from this femme, and keep them safe.

But she couldn't. If she kept the sparklings they would be killed. Whether by hardships or battles they would eventually perish. It was that thought that made her turn around, ignoring her precious children's cries, and leave, flying off to who knows where to continue her part in the war.

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	2. Chapter 1

**Just a few things you need to know about Blackshadow.**

**1: Her sparkmate is Dreadwing**

**2: Blackshadow's weapons are two swords which she keeps on a belt on her waist, fifteen knives of assorted sizes of which eight are at her waist while the rest are hidden on parts of her body, and a small gun which she keeps in subspace and barely uses.**

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Blackshadow surveyed the battlefield in one long disdainful look._ I was called away from an important meeting for this?_ There was less than ten Autobots there, though there were only drones to fight them, that would be why reinforcements were called.

She heard a muffled noise behind her and whirled around just in time to unsheathe her sword and meet the blade of an Autobot who's name she failed to remember. She looked at his yellow paint job while they had a test of strength as each one tried to force the other's blade away. The young mech was stronger than her, so she twirled away, then tried to stab at his unprotected side. He blocked her blade with surprising skill for one so young. Sunstreaker. That was his name. She remembered Knockout complaining about the young mech beating him with his brother...What was his name again? Sideswipe, that was it.

Blackshadow backed away a bit, then went in with a flurry of stabs, jabs, sidecuts, and backhands that would make almost any bot think twice about challenging her. But he blocked everything, even making room for a little offensive strike once in a while. _This mech is good._ She slashed at his middle, then quick as lightning flicked her sword up at his face. He simply stabbed at her neck, hence making her forfeit her fancy swordplay for a more simple 'dodge the shiny object that is trying to split you in half'. _This mech is very good._ She noticed a smile inching its way across his faceplates. _And cocky, very cocky as well._ She decided to go in with a different strategy. Before she had been aiming for the main, most important parts of his body where he was trained the most to protect. Now she would go for his arms and legs.

She had her sword in her right servo, so she reached for a knife with her left, never letting her eyes leave the youngster as she took the knife out of its sheathe on her belt. He didn't seem particularly worried that she had just armed herself with another object that could kill him._ All the better for me. His overconfidence will be his downfall._ He came at her this time, and instead of meeting his blade like she had been doing, she dodged around him, giving him a cut on the arm here, pricking his leg there. All in all, it wasn't doing much, but it was doing something. She slipped behind him and flicked her knife across his back then while he was still turning around, she slid back into her original position. Instead of striking him again while he had his back to her, she watched curiously as to see why the mech was blundering about like he had just been thrown into a battle with little, to no training at all. He finally faced her again, only where confidence had been seconds before, there was hatred, and embarrassment from making him look so dumb and defenseless on the battlefield. He also shot the look at his brother who met his eyes, shrugged, then ignored his twin as he fought with another opponent. He was winning his fight by a landslide.

_That's it!_ Blackshadow eyed Sunstreaker's stance just to make sure, then confirmed it with her self. _He's so used to having his brother protect his back, that when somebody gets behind him, he can barely defend it. Even his fighting stance says that if I were behind him, he could do little to stop me from, per say, stabbing him senseless_. Now she knew how to beat him. It was so easy! How did she not see it before?

She went in with another flurry or attacks, then managed to get behind him, injure him more, and kick him hard on his winglets sending his toppling head over heals into the hard ground. Before she could finish him off, though, she felt a scorching pain on her back right before she collided with a tree that had been at least 10 yards away from where she had been a second before. She gasped as she scrambled to her feet, the shot had hit her wings, which meant if she had to make a hasty getaway she would have some trouble with the flying part of it. Her sword and knife had flown from her grasp.

She tried to get her other sword out as her optics searched for the one who had shot her, only to be thrown to the ground again by that annoying twin. He pinned her against the ground, then put his sword against her throat. Giving her that irking smile, he said in an icy voice,"Beg for mercy."

"No, you'd better beg me for it." she bit the side of her mouth, feeling the energon well up inside of it, then she spat the acidy liquid into the mech's optics. His reflexes reacted before his processor, and he let go of her, clawing at his optics in pain. It was a bit of a dirty trick, but it worked. She struck up at him, sending him sprawling before jumping up, getting out a knife, and throwing it with practiced precision. She hit her mark, and the twin cried out in further pain as the weapon dug into his leg, making it so he couldn't get up.

Blackshadow pulled out her other sword, this time successful in getting it out without being shot. She walked over to finish the 'bot, but again she was stopped when she heard the sound of a knife hissing through the air. Jumping out of the way of what could have been a fatal hit to the spark, she turned to face her new enemy. She mentally groaned, she hated facing Prowl.

Lets get this over with. She sheathed her sword, instead choosing a long knife in her right hand, and a shorter one in her other. When fighting Prowl, a sword would only get it the way.

He charged her, but she stood her ground until the last second when she stepped out of the way, bringing her knife around to try to stab him in the back. Her weapon clashed jarringly against Prowl's, and the fight began.

A fight with a veteran was very different than a fight with a younger, less experienced bot no matter how good they are. Where a younger bot would come all out trying to cut you in half, a veteran would wait, observe, then attack with much more precise strikes going for your weak spots, not as easily defended sides, basically trying to tear you apart by your loose ends. When it came to one on one fighting, veterans were definitely much more dangerous.

That was why she made her aching frame keep up with every little twitch he made. With Sunstreaker, she could afford a nano click of lag one in a while. He wasn't experienced enough to exploit an astro second of weakness, Prowl was.

She was tired, aching, and injured, it was all she could do keep up with Prowl's flurry of attacks, never mind trying an stab or two of her own. She knew Prowl could easily tell that if he kept this up, she would tier out shortly.

An opportunity for a bit of offense presented itself, and she took it gratefully. She jabbed her longer knife at his abdomen after dodging a swipe aimed at her helm. He danced gracefully out of the way while she berated herself for being a little too slow.

Suddenly, pain exploded in her left shoulder. Daring to look down, she saw the tip of a blade was sticking out of it with her energon on it. The blade was extracted from her shoulder before she was kicked forward, landing face first in the dirt.

She was slower in getting up this time, now only able to use her right arm. Her left arm wasn't responding. Growling at herself for having ignored the world around her while she was fighting Prowl, she faced the two opponents. Great, Mirage has joined the party. Now she had to fight two veterans.

They stood a few feet from each other, so she adjusted her footing to cover both their positions. Prowl charged again, and Mirage went invisible. I forgot he could do that. Prowl struck at her left side, while Mirage appeared on her right. She had resort to dodging their attacks. It didn't help that she had a useless arm hanging off her side, and she was still in excruciating pain. Prowl backed away while Mirage turned invisible again. She needed to get something solid to her back so they couldn't surround her again.

Prowl attacked again, but Mirage didn't attack with him. She tried to listen while she battled Prowl to where he could be, but evidently the plan between the two was for Prowl to distract her while Mirage looked for an opening to deal a lot of damage through.

Blackshadow prayed that more backup would come soon. Had anyone even called for more? She was a little too busy to, but surely someone had.

Prowl backed up from another attack just before Mirage appeared in front of her slashing up with his arm blade, cutting from the bottom of her neck, to the top of her helm, though thankfully the wound wasn't deep enough to be life threatening. While he had attacked her she had grabbed his wrist as to not lose tract of him again, kicking him since she couldn't use her left hand, she also couldn't see out of her right optic, since Mirage had cut it. Thankfully, Prowl had found another victim to attack.

It was again a game of dodging for her, she couldn't really attack him other than kicking since she held his arm in a death grip, and she was mostly using her armored legs and feet to block things she couldn't dodge. She was basically just waiting for backup.

Thankfully, backup did come soon, and the Autobots retreated as ten to fifteen Vehicons streamed out of the portal, along with some officers, and foot soldiers.

Knockout took one look at her, then dragged her to the Medbay. He patched up her shoulder first, then took a look at her eye. Thankfully, Mirage hadn't cut it deep enough to permanently damage it, though he said the wound it had been a part of would badly scar. Then he took a look at her wings. It annoyed her that she didn't know who had shot her, but there wasn't really anything she could do about that since she had already asked the cons who had been fighting with her at the time.

After she was repaired, she went to her quarters. She had been given a medical leave of about four days, and she was determined to spend as much of it as she could get away with catching up on some recharge.

Her comm. unexpectedly fizzled to life as it warmed up to communicate something to her. She sighed wanting nothing more than to be left alone, but stopped in the middle of her exclamation of annoyance when she heard who was calling.

::Blackshadow, I know I probably owe you a hundred more favors than you owe me, but I have to ask another one::

Her breath caught in her throat as she listen to the voice she hadn't heard in so long. Halfmoon... She immediately answered the 'bot, not caring if Soundwave could pick up on the conversation or not.

::What is it::

::It's the twins, you know, the 'special' twins, they're starting their metamorphosis and we both know who should show them how to embrace their new talents::

Blackshadow knew exactly who she meant, but Halfmoon was probably too cautious to say their names over the comm., she meant Blacklight and Midlight. ::What is their current condition?:: Blackshadow knew if she left now she would make all sorts of suspicion arise because of her injuries, and in this matter the last thing she wanted was a few nosy 'cons snooping where they didn't belong.

::Able to wait till tomorrow, though not much longer after that:: The knowing tone in Halfmoon's voice told her that one of the three Blackshadow had faced earlier that day had bragged about beating her up.

::Where do you want to meet?::

::I'll contact you with the coordinates tomorrow:: Blackshadow nodded, it was a wise choice in case someone was listening in. There was a pause before Halfmoon spoke again ::How are you?::

::Alive::

::That bad huh?::

::Please tell Prowl and Mirage that I will kill them next time I see them::

::That might be easier said then done. Goodbye::

::Goodbye::

::Sweet dreams in recharge::

::Nowadays, sweet dreams are unrealistic::

::All the more reason to wish them upon you::

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**Please review, and if you have any advise or see any mistakes please tell me. I'd rather have a page and a half of complaints about how horrible the chapter was, than a horrible chapter sitting out for all to see and read.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Yay! Another ****update! Hopefully I'll have another one up on Sunday, but I might not.**

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Chapter Two

Blackshadow growled softly at the pain brought by the use of her injured wings. Knockout had been insistent that she not do anything too strenuous for a few days, but she had a job to do, and she was going to get it done no matter what the medic said.

As she neared the coordinates that Halfmoon had given her she grew anxious. She knew that the twins would be alarmed by her presence, herself being their enemy, and may not take well to her trying to help them.

She transformed into her bipedal mode before landing, Halfmoon had chosen a quite dense forest area for their meeting spot. She waited their for about five breems or so before a ground bridge appeared, then out of it came Halfmoon and the twins. "Glad you could make it."

Halfmoon smiled and replied,"Had a bit of trouble with making our departure not look so suspicious."

Blackshadow turned her attention to the Blacklight and Midlight,"Hello."

The twins glanced warily at her, a challenge rising in their optics even though they looked exhausted.

"Please tell me you can help them, they've been fighting their powers for weeks but they can't seem to get control-" before Halfmoon could finish her sentence Midlight's frame seemed to shudder and even disconnect and disappear in some places before the young femme managed to get ahold of the sudden power surge and pull herself back together,"-of them." Halfmoon finished quietly, looking to Blackshadow as the older femme assessed the situation.

Blackshadow walked over to Midlight and placed her hand on her shoulder. She could feel the chaotic energy flashing within her. She slowly and carefully absorbed some of that energy, making sure that she was taking the right kind while at the same time storing it in herself.

When Midlight's power was under control Blackshadow stood back from the twin observing her work. Already Midlight looked like a huge load had been lifted from her, which it had.

"Thank you," Midlight's soft voice floated across the air like birdsong, brushing gently across all the audio receptors it came in contact with. Blackshadow merely nodded, walked stepped over to Blacklight and did the same to her.

"What now?" Halfmoon asked hesitantly.

"Now, I train them." Blackshadow replied smoothly.

"But we're on different sides! You can't just waltz out the Nemeses saying that you need to go train some Autobot younglings."

"I don't intend to." Blackshadow looked the two young femmes over, taking in every detail,"

Halfmoon stood silently, letting Blackshadow think. She knew the Decepticon well enough to see when she was coming up with a plan.

Blackshadow analyzed her schedule for any time she was not completing assignment or recharging. She found three gaps about every four weeks that she would have more than two hours at a time off.

"Meet me back here in precisely three weeks, a day, and four hours." The twins could wait that long for their first lesson. It seemed that they had already learned somewhat how to control their talents, it was the amount of energy surging through them that they couldn't control.

"We'll be there." Halfmoon stated with a firm nod in Blackshadow's direction.

"Don't be late," Blackshadow used her thrusters to fly up above the foliage before transforming into her alt. mode and soaring away.

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When Blackshadow landed on the flight deck the only thing she wanted to do was go recharge. Her wounds were aching, and Knockout would have a fit if he found out that she'd been flying.

She made her way quickly and quietly to her and Dreadwing's quarters. Slipping into her room she plopped down on her berth exhausted.

Her small cyber kitten trotted up to the edge of the bed, then waited to be picked up.

She wasn't one of big species bred for viciousness and fighting ability. No, this small creature was more of a watcher, a planner, or a thinker. Though maybe Dreadwing should have chosen a bigger species, her being too small to even jump up on the berth was getting annoying.

Blackshadow vented noisily, reached down, and plucked the little pest up off of the floor. The little being nuzzled her servo in thanks, but Blackshadow merely set her down beside herself.

The door opened with a hiss, revealing the other Cybotronian that shared this room. Blackshadow didn't even bother looking at her sparkmate, she knew that his faceplates would be set in a straight line. "Hard cycle for both of us I guess."

Dreadwing didn't respond, he didn't need to. All the information he wanted to share with her flowed over their bond.

Blackshadow slowly processed the information he had sent her. A few energon mines had run out of energon and without any known source of energon to replace them Dreadwing had been sent on a long scouting mission without any success. Starscream had angered Megatron yet again, and was currently in the medbay. Knockout had come looking for her, yet since she wasn't there Dreadwing had had to make up something. And last, but not least, Megatron had formed yet another plan to extinguish the Autobots and had called him to a very long, stressful meeting.

_Hmmmm...Have you ever thought of suggesting a day off?_ Blackshadow thought that Megatron pushed her sparkmate much too hard sometimes.

_It would be foolish to do so._

_It would be foolish not to do so, at this rate you're going to collapse._

_Can we change the subject?_

_No._

_How's Fang today?_

Blackshadow had wanted to talk to Dreadwing about her, so she begrudgingly relented to the forced change of subject while sending him a fierce feeling speaking of 'this isn't over'. _Are you sure she isn't ready for her next upgrade?_

_Unless she is older than I think she is, no she isn't ready._

Blackshadow mentally sighed,_It's getting annoying, her being to small._

_I thought we agreed that it would be worth the annoyance when she went into her final frame._

Blackshadow searched her memory banks for any such agreement._ I guess we did. I just assumed she would be fully matured by now._

_It won't be too long now, maybe before the war is ended._

_That's not very assuring._

_I'm sure it will end soon._

_The problem is keeping her alive until then._

That statement eased the tight expression on her sparkemate's faceplates a bit. _She is a trouble maker._

_Do you have anything left to do?_

_No._

_Do you mind if I turn off the light?_

_I'm about to go recharge anyway._

_Don't stay up too late on reports._

_I won't._

_I mean it, if I find out you've spent more than a few kliks past a breem on those reports, I'll force you into a stasis lock for an orn._

_I love you too._

Blackshadow rolled her optics, turned off the lights, and went to sleep.

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**Please review.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Yay! A chapter in a week! I have had all the chapter to this story previously written until now, so I am very excited that I managed to get this chapter out in a week. **

**Barricade has known Blackshadow most of her life, I'll go into their friendship more in later chapters.**

**Now, onto the story.**

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Chapter Three

Blackshadow exhaled softly through her vents. She had been back to duty for a week now, but was still not cleared for scouting or fighting missions. That left her the boring tasks such as monitor duty, and overseeing ship repairs. She had just gotten off of monitor duty, and having been staring at a screen for a vorn, she was very much ready to get her energon and take a break.

She could have gone back to her quarters, but she felt more like socializing with the soldiers. After all, she hadn't even met the soldiers that had transferred from Cybotron yet.

Entering into the rec. room, she immediately spotted one of the newbies designated Disruptor. He was a rowdy one from what she had heard, always starting fights, pulling off not so nice pranks with his new friend Spywarp, and generally causing a stir wherever he went.

She didn't want to have to deal with him, so she quietly got her energon and sat down at a table in the far corner, Barricade moved from where he had been seated and sat down beside her. For a few precious kliks everything was peaceful, well, as peaceful as it could be in a room full of mechs. Then, the inevitable happened.

Disruptor turned around to see what was happening in the corner, and spotted her. Femmes are a rare thing among the Decepticon ranks, so when there is one, she is almost always noticed. The mech looked at her for a few klicks, then called,"Why are you hanging out with that stupid mech, there's a seat right over here next to me that's empty."

The room grew deadly quiet. At least half of the mechs in the room had tried to get the feeme to notice/like them before finding out that the femme had a not so merciful sparkmate. They were all waiting to see what would happen this time.

"I think I'll pass,"

"Aww come on, your no fun."

"I think our definitions of fun are very different."

"What's your's?"

"My servo in your face."

"No need to get feisty, it was just an invitation."

"An invitation for what?" The voice boomed over that conversation being held.

"Uh, uh, C-commander Dreadwing. How nice of you to stop by." Disruptor's smile had been replaced by a bit of fear.

"An invitation for what?" Dreadwing restated his question, his faceplates shaping into a snarl.

"I just wanted to offer the little femme the seat next to me."

"That 'little femme' is my sparkmate." If Cybotronians could turn colors, this one's would be green.

"My sincerest apologies commander, I didn't know."

"Get out of my sight."

Blackshadow glanced at the fleeing form, then at her sparkmate,_You handled him pretty well, though you should have given him something to remember you by, some singed armor, a cut, something._

_He won't be trying that again._

_All the same, I'm going to put him on monitor duty for a while._

_Getting tired of it already?_

_I'm about ready to go into the medbay and change the information so I can go on a patrol._

_Well, if your to that point, I'll request Knockout let you do something outside the Nemesis lest him medbay be destroyed._

_Ha ha._

Dreadwing physically motioned for Blackshadow to follow him, then started off down the hall.

Blackshadow grimaced slightly at her half drunk energon, then left it on the table for one of the cleaning drones to pick up. She had to walk rather quickly to catch up with Dreadwing, he always set a fast pace when he was angry.

_What's wrong?_

_I hate it how when new recruits see you, they automatically think your open to be chased after._

_Mechs will be mechs, and you could try taking your anger out on the next one that tries that._

_It seems hardly fair to punish them for something they didn't know not to do. You want to gain the soldiers loyalty through respect, not fear._

_I know that, but beating up a mech because he was messing with your sparkmate is different than just beating him up to make him fear you._

_True._

_Where are we going?_

_On a long flight._

_Oh, we haven't done that in a long time, have you asked Knockout if you can disobey his orders?_

_He must never know._

And as the couple spent some well earned time together, things at the Autobot base were going much differently...

"Get back you little scrap heap you!" Blacklight practically screamed at the bot she was chasing, Midlight was currently trying to exterminate his brother. Ah, the terror twins had struck again.

The femmes had woken up that morning to find that their paint jobs had been changed. Now, normally the younglings didn't give a scrap about their paint jobs, but this was over the line. Not only had Sunstreaker and Sideswipe changed their paint job to an ugly color of lime green, they had written all the dirty secrets they knew about them on their new paint jobs. In short, Ratchet himself might not be able to patch up what was left.

Blacklight followed Sideswipe as he rounded a hall, and ran smack dab into Chromia.

"Whoa, slow..." When Chromia looked up at Blacklight and saw her new paint job, she simply pointed the way Sideswipe had went.

Blacklight raced after the mech, now being slightly more careful when rounding corners. Blacklight rounded another bend, then stopped. Sideswipe was nowhere to be seen.

_I lost Sunstreaker. Midlight spoke over their bond._

_I lost Sideswipe._

_Where do you think they went?_

_I don't know, but I don't like it. Whenever they're out of sight they're causing trouble._

_True that._

Blacklight entered the main room, carefully stepping around the small creature designated Miko. Prowl looked up from where he was operating the computer, and said,"Where have you been, you were due for a patrol two and a half breems ago."

Blacklight looked over at Prowl, then pointed to her new paint job.

"I see." Was the reply that came back.

"Have you seen Sideswipe or Sunstreaker?"

"They have not come through here."

"Permission to change paint job back to original color."

"Granted, I'll assign the patrol to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker."

Blacklight sighed and went to her and Midlight's quarter. Midlight soon was there too, complaining on how embarrassing it was to be lime green.

All in all, it was a normal day at the Autobot base.

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**Please review.**


	5. Chapter 4

**I'm soooooooooooo sorry for not updating the past few weeks, I know tomorrow will mark the third week since my last update, but I have no excuse. I was lazy, sorry.**

**Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

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Chapter 4

Have you ever been so ticked off at something someone chose to do that you were literally two seconds away from beating their face into the ground? Well, that's where this chapter starts out...

"You didn't teach them how to use their _powers?_" It wasn't a question, it was a statement. One that was filled with disbelief, disappointment, and anger. The time for the twins' first lesson in shapeshifting had come, only for her to find that the twins didn't know how to use the talents they had possessed since sparkinghood.

Halfmoon stood nervously, prancing slightly in case she needed to make a quick getaway, and by the way things were going, she might have to,"I wanted them to grow up normally, to not have them worrying about training when any normal sparkling would have been playing."

"The point is, they were not normal sparklings, and they are not normal younglings." The venom is Blackshadow's optics died down a bit at Halfmoon's reasoning, but she still held her glare firm,"Now leave my sight before I do something unpleasant to you." Halfmoon rolled her optics to the sky at the Decepticon's threat, but left just the same.

"What now?" Blacklight asked.

Blackshadow turned to her and said,"Now I teach you how to shapeshift, you'll have to learn to use your abilities on your own time." The twins nodded and waited for their new mentor to begin. "Sit down, the first lesson will be learning about shapeshifters." While the two feemes made themselves comfortable, Blackshadow began to pace.

"Have you younglings ever learned the history of the shapeshifters?"Blackshadow asked turning around.

"No," Blacklight answered for them both.

Blackshadow scoffed, then muttered something under her breath along the line of "ignorant fool", and began her lesson."When the universe was created, Primus made mech and femme-"

"We know that,"Blacklight interrupted,"it's basic history..."She trailed off as Blackshadow fixed her with a stern look for interrupting.

"Now, as I was saying, Primus made mech and femme, but he also made many different species too, like humans, as you know, cybercats, cyberhounds, and all manner of creatures to populate Cybotron. Among those he made, he also made Shapeshifters.

"Shapeshifters looked, talked, and walked like any other sentient being on the planet, but they were very different. They all possessed wonderful powers, and the adults could shapeshift. They could look like anything they wished, they could help and heal, they were created to be peaceful beings, but as Primus gives every one a will, the mortals turned away from Primus and the Shifters soon followed.

"When Primus had created everything, it had been perfect, but after his people had rebelled against him, he cursed everything from their immortality, to their planet. The Shifters immediantly argued among themselves about whether of not they should rule over the mortals, after all, back then a single shifter was powerful enough to destroy a whole army of mortals.

"Some argued that they should leave the filthy mortals to their own devices, why should they heal their sick and hurt?

"Others that had repented and gone back to following Primus said that they should still live among them, and try to be what they had been before they had disobeyed their creator.

"The argument divided them so much that they formed two groups the first two groups merged into one called the Shradel, while the third group stood firm in its beliefs and named themselves the Seketion. A fight followed, one which such power clashing had never been seen before, and would never be seen again. The group which followed Primus was much smaller than the one which didn't, but Primus blessed his followers and gave them more power than they had ever had before. They won easily, and without a single death on their side. They banished the other group to the stars, and did not allow them to return to Cybotron for as long as they lived."

Blackshadow paused for a second, letting the youngling soak in the new information before continuing,"After the deaths of all who had been banished, and the banishers, the new generation allowed the Shradel to come back, as long as they agreed to the principles they had forged. The leaders of both parties agreed that they couldn't live among one another, the hatred was too strong, so the Seketion vacated half of Cybotron and allowed the Shradel to possess the other half.

"Over the years, the Shradel and Seketion have had wars, conflicts, and one the Shradel tried to rule over the mortals on their half of the planet, but ever since the beginning of the mortal's war which form the Autobots and Decepticons, we have more or less given each other some slack. Any questions?"

Midlight hesitantly spoke,"Why did the Seketion let the Shradel come back if they hadn't resolved all their differences?"

"Think of the Shradel as the Decepticons, and the Seketion as the Autobots. If the Decepticons wanted peace, even if they might cause some trouble after the war because of their differences to the Autobots, would the Optimus accept?"

"Yes." Midlight said, then looked at the ground while she asked another question,"Are you Seketion or Shradel?"

"Seketion, and so are you both."

"Then why are you with the Decepticons?"

"Because even though I participate in the war, I still have work to do and joining the Decepticons is the best way to get that work done."

"What work?" Blacklight asked.

"Nothing you'd understand at this point, now, lets get on to learning the basics of shapeshifting."

And as the sun sank lower in the sky, for the first time in the two younglings' lives they talked with, and learned from a Decepticon. They learned a bit of shapeshifting, and that not every Decepticon fitted the description of cruel, unjust, and evil. And even-with much pleading and begging-got their teacher to teach them a shifter lullaby. It was a good start to the long mentorship that was to come.

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